Up in the air: threats to Afromontane biodiversity from climate change
and habitat loss revealed by modelling and landscape genetics of the
Ethiopian Highlands long-eared bat
- Orly Razgour,
- Mohammed Kasso,
- Helena Santos,
- Javier Juste
Orly Razgour
University of Exeter
Corresponding Author:orly.razgour@gmail.com
Author ProfileHelena Santos
Research Network in Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (InBIO-CIBIO)
Author ProfileAbstract
Whilst climate change is recognised as a major future threat to
biodiversity, most species are currently threatened by extensive
human-induced habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation. Tropical high
altitude alpine and montane forest ecosystems and their biodiversity are
particularly sensitive to temperature increases under climate change,
but they are also subject to accelerated pressures from land conversion
and degradation due to a growing human population. We studied the
combined effects of anthropogenic land-use change, past and future
climate changes and mountain range isolation on the endemic Ethiopian
Highlands long-eared bat, Plecotus balensis, an understudied bat that is
restricted to the remnant natural high altitude Afroalpine and
Afromontane habitats. We integrated ecological niche modelling,
landscape genetics and model-based inference to assess the genetic,
geographic and demographic impacts of past and recent environmental
changes. We show that mountain range isolation and historic climates
shaped population structure and patterns of genetic variation, but
recent anthropogenic land-use change and habitat degradation are
associated with a severe population decline and loss of genetic
diversity. Our models predict that the suitable niche of this bat has
been progressively shrinking since the last glaciation period. This
study highlights threats to tropical montane biodiversity, squeezed to
higher altitudes under climate change while losing genetic diversity and
suffering population declines due to anthropogenic land-use change. We
conclude that assessments of threats to biodiversity under global change
should adopt a holistic approach, simultaneously studying the effects of
multiple threats across temporal scales based on genetic, ecological and
geographic information.02 Jun 2020Submitted to Molecular Ecology 04 Jun 2020Reviewer(s) Assigned
01 Jul 2020Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending